Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Well, it's been awhile, hasn't it? While I haven't been here posting, I did get a couple of runs in, over the past couple of weeks. The last two Sundays, I managed to run a measly 7 km each time, one of those in some nasty cold weather.

And both times, my Garmin was dead as heck. I think I simply forgot to plug it in to charge up, though I wondered if perhaps after six years the battery had finally stopped being able to hold a charge. So I recorded those two runs as being 7.3 km run at a pace of 6:00/km.

Tonight, despite only a technical tee and a wind breaker, I was definitely over dressed. I should have chosen shorts.

I didn't get out until later than usual. It was nice not to have cyclists playing chicken with you, but there were still enough of them out there. Lots of running groups out there too, so that made them more surly than usual.

Oh right! The eight hundred! This is my eight hundredth post to this blog. A milestone of sorts, but not sure of what...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Just the usual for Calgary for January. At least there is no wind to speak of. The paths are covered in packed snow, and in some places it's a little bumpy and uncomfortable to run on. But not slippery at all, unless you use a really aggressive stride. Me, I'm pretty easy going and slow-ish.

The cold always bites a little during the first ten minutes or so. Once I build up a little heat, it comes up to my face, so I don't even notice the cold.

Given that I've only been running once a week or less for the last month, I'm keeping the distance down to about 7 km a run to get back into the groove. That could be laziness too, or resenting the time it takes to be out there.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

My first run of the new year, and it's blowing pretty nasty out. There were reports on the radio of major stretches of highway being closed. But I figured I better get out there.

Seems like the only day of the week I run is Sundays; I need to get back into my schedule of at least three times a week. I don't know why it's so hard, but I readily lay the blame on the cold and the darkness.

Anyway, it's blowing hard from the west, but I had that at my back heading down to the Centre Street bridge. The paths and the top of the bluff are layered in semi-packed snow, and it's slow going. In contrast, the bridge was scoured clean by the snow. I could feel it too, a whippy cross wind slowed only a little by the bridge railing.

Coming off the bridge, I was fully exposed, now wishing I'd worn a scarf, but a hundred paces on I had some shelter from the trees growing along the edge of the river. A little better. Past Eau Claire it was much more sheltered, and I started to warm up a little, and that was all I needed. After that, even though I was in and out of the wind, it never really bothered me too much.

I crossed at the 14th Street bridge, reasoning that I wasn't up to much more since I've been slacking for the past month. On the other side, with the wind at my back, it was much more civilized. I passed the two little jeeps with plows on them, that keep the path clear from Edworthy to the zoo, they were backing down the path, maybe to take a wider bite from the ridge along the path's edge.

The trudge up The Path Under The Stairs went well. By then I was head down, all business, just get 'er done. The path at the top of the bluff was mostly polished now by the blowing snow. There were a couple of low spots where it was accumulating, just for variety.

I don't set any speed records in these conditions, but I think I did not too bad.